Ukraine's Zelensky calls for fresh talks, Russia says entered besieged Mariupol centre
Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for meaningful talks with Moscow on Saturday to stop the invasion, as Russia said its soldiers had entered the centre of besieged city Mariupol, "tightening the noose" around the key port.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for talks with Moscow in a video posted to Facebook, saying it "this is te time to meet, to talk, time for renewing territorial integrity and fairness for Ukraine," adding that "otherwise, Russia's losses will be such, that several generations will not recover."
But Russia's defence ministry said Friday that the army and its separatist allies had made a breakthrough in Mariupol, which has been under Russian shelling for days, and were now inside the city, with "units of the Donetsk People's Republic, with the support of the Russian armed forces" also "squeezing the encirclement" the ministry said. The mayor of the city confirmed to the BBC that gun battles had reached the heart of Mariupol.
Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova on Friday said 130 people had been rescued so far from the rubble of a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol, after Ukraine said a powerful Russian air strike hit the building where hundreds of people had been sheltering from the war on Thursday. On Friday evening, rescuers were still searching for hundreds of people trapped.
Russian missiles hit an aircraft maintenance plant Friday near the airport in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, said the mayor.
Russian bombardments have expanded in eastern Ukraine with deadly attacks on Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and shelling in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region.
Kyiv city authorities on Friday said 222 people had been killed in the capital since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began.
The UNHCR said Friday that more than 3.25 million Ukrainians had fled across the border since the war began on February 24, with more than 2 million crossing the Polish border. The UN children’s agency says around half of those who have fled are children
